Criticism of Philosophical Game Design

Mike Gamm writes in New Age Socialities: 

"As you have heard me say before, I really disagree with Lars Konzack and the idea that most players prefer philosophical game design above all other aspects of gaming (). I believe that the multiplayer component is going to be the largest part of gaming in the years to come; in fact I have noticed small but important trends that show significant changes in the way we are gaming."

and later ...

"Even in our gaming class we were unable to show a significant influence from the all powerful philosophical gameplay and design that Konzack ranted about in the VGTR2."

As part of my response, I want to stress that criticism is a good thing - especially constructive criticism of course. Without criticism we would not develop our ideas. However, I would like to point to a few problems with this criticism in particular.

First of all, I want to be clear on the fact that I have never said that most players prefer philosophical game design above all other aspects of gaming.

I do think multiplayer components are developing. And I do not think that every design aspect in the game industry is about philosophical game design.

What makes philosophical game design interesting is that it is a way to put content into the game. This can be done with multiplayer games too. If we for a moment think of games like Warcraft and Starcraft each of the opposing armies have their own combat philosophy build into the game structure based on the game design. They each represent another way of dealing with technology and how they battle to win. This is expressed thorugh the game mechanics and embedded into the game for the players to experience. Having different races in e.g. WoW is another way to express different philosophies in a multiplayer game.

The philosophical content is not in conflict with social gaming. Philosphical game design is not anti-multiplayer. It is just another way to approach the design of games, focusing on ideas and concepts rather than small features. This does not mean there is no room for features, but each feature is designed to express the philospohy or the philosophies of the game. And in that sense the philosophy of the game is an overall game design strategy and above all the single features of the game.

Anonymous Pirate Flags

Guy Fawkes Mask and Bones.

Beware! Anonpirates.

Prince of Persia
Went to see Prince of Persia with low expectations. Movies based on video games tend to be bad. Mostly because they lack content, focusing only on action packed drama.

PoP turned out differently. It may not be the best movie ever. If that was their ambition they would have to look deeper into the cultural and mythological material they were dealing with. That said it was actually a good movie. Interesting characters, engaging plot etc. The villain could have been better although the actor did a nice job with what was offered.

The most interesting part of the movie was that it did not lack content. PoP adressed the problems with  the Bush administration's big mistake of launching an attack on Iraq. The movie was in fact one big apology of this mission of TOTAL FAIL. And it actually managed to say this in a clever way.

However, the solution to the problem failed in the movie, saying that we should listen more carefully to our heart. On the contrary. The problem in the movie and in the Iraq war was, that we did not think carefully about what we were doing.

If we could learn to think better instead of following simplistic feelings we would indeed be better off.

THE BLAZING WORLD
To any sub-creator, role-player,or fantasy enthusiast out there. When you have finished re-reading JRR Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories" and during this process actually understanding what he is saying. (Hint: He believes fantasy to be created thorugh Rational thought and not made for children.) You may want to read "On Science Fiction" by CS Lewis. And when you are finished re-reading that, I swear that you will enjoy Margaret Cavendish's "The Description of A New World Called The Blazing World". Especially, feminists may find this work intriguing. That said, I do want to impose this upon any writer or game designer, reader or player of fantasy and weird fiction.